Woodworking blog entries tagged with 'curly maple'

So this blog entry will be pretty short. In truth, creating a saw tote doesn’t take more than half a day in the shop to cut out the wood, shape it and get the first coat of finish on it. This blog seems long, but I did try to cover a lot of the details for those that care about such things.
In this final installment of the little gents saw conversion, we install the saw back, line up the saw plate, install the split nuts, give it some test cuts, make a final adjustment or two, oil it...

Finishing the Saw Tote
We are nearing the home stretch! Thanks for following along. To recap, we decided to convert a 10” gents saw into a western dovetail saw and selected the pattern and materials in part 1. In part 2 of the series, we bored out lots of holes to shape the tote, cut the tote out on the bandsaw, hogged out the mortise for the saw back and drilled stepped holes for the brass split nut hardware on the drill press. In part 3, we cut the saw spine down, notched the saw plate t...

So far this project has been an excellent learning process, when it came time to finishing that was no exception.
The client was looking for a “super glossy” look to the box. I decided to use a tung oil from Lee valley.
The process was very simple. The lid to the humidor has some very fine figure to it so I wont up sanding it to 800 grit to remove all sanding marks. The rest of the box I sanded to 500 grit.
I applied a thick first coat and let it soak in for about 10 minu...

A little progress update here.
I lined the box with spanish cedar, starting with the bottom then the walls and finally the lid. I’m quite happy with how it turned out all pieces are a tight fit and held in place with a couple dots of epoxy.
After getting the box lined I fine tuned the fit using my no.5 1/2 which worked really well, better than expected.
Time to get the lid attached, thanks to some excellent advice:
Well, she s looking good so far!
A couple of tips in de...

A friend asked me to make a humidor for him after seeing some of my other projects. Having never made one, of course I said yes.Started off with a simple rabbit joint for the box frame.
Added some maple trim on the corners and brought it down flush with my no.5 1/2
Added a walnut ply in a rabbit to the top and bottom
Next up the top and bottom caps at 3/8” thick
This walnut crotch is from a 4/4 chunk that I book matched to give it a subtle nod to a tobacc...

Part two of the Gents Saw Conversion series. This may be a bit verbose, so I apologize ahead of time. After all, we are just drilling holes…
The next step in the conversion process is drilling holes. A lot of holes. You will need a variety of forstner and twist drill bits to complete these steps.
With your template affixed to your stock, use an awl to create reference points on all of the indicated locations, or use the spur on the forstner to create a divot. Apply moderate pr...

There has been a lot of interest in building tools from scratch, rehabbing tools that needed some love, or repurposing a tool so that it might have more potential or beauty. I have decided to chronicle a few saw builds in these categories in the hope that it might inspire someone to give it a try that was otherwise too nervous to begin the journey on their own.
For this series, I am going to do a write up on re-purposing an inexpensive gents saw into a western style dovetail saw. This idea...

I thought it would be interesting to try another inexpensive build and decided to re-purpose one of the Home Depot Husky 14” backsaws that sell for a little less than $9 USD. Here it is in its natural environment.
On first inspection, you see that its made in the USA (from global components), but is made from high carbon spring steel, is .032” thick and the plate is not etched. The folded steel back of this is my least favorite part, and I debated slotting a piece of brass,...

Oh – I seem to be so late at getting to my blogs these days! I find that I wind up spending the mornings visiting my artistic friends' pages and seeing what they posted through the night. That usually takes me away to other places and gives me MORE ideas of new things to create. It is a vicious circle! ;) I spent the day yesterday finishing up drawing my new patterns for the scroll saw projects I am making and I actually got MOST of them cut out. With all the errands and stuff ...

Join me for another walk through the wood shop. This time showing progress being made during the build your own chair course. Rocking chairs from Curly Maple + Wenge & Walnut + Curly Maple.
Also a few prototype tables I’ve designed, which are oh so close to assembly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1gyDhW1Ghw